This skunk is not following the rules

Everything I have read and all the people I have talked to told me this skunk would be gone in 3-4 days. Well, it is NOT leaving, it has visited us every night for the past 2 weeks. It is a pretty skunk, and lets you get quite close to it, doesn't raise the stink alarm either anymore. But I really wish it would move on. One of these days one of the cats is going to get to close and get sprayed again. I can't figure out what it is eating here, because all the food is now in the upper loft of the hay barn, and it can't get up there, though the ferals can. I am totally baffled-

Do you have a compost heap with old veggies and stuff in it? What about grain? Veggie/flower garden? Maybe it has young that are too small to travel? Hmmm. Dunno why except animals love ya!

My husband tells a funny story about when he was a kid, that one night when he and is Mom went out to feed the cats there was a skunk mixed in with the many cats she had. When his mother saw the skunk she went running by her son screaming SKUNK and left him there
Anyway, you had to be there.
Sounds like the skunk knows there is food somewhere and he is following the cats.
Clara

We've had a skunk living in our yard for years now. He's HUGE! We named him Peppy. Every now and then he lets one off, and I have to get out of bed and shut the windows. He doesn't bother us, we don't bother him.

I guess spotted skunks can climb. I don't know if your guy is spotted or not.

There is a such thing as skunk repellent, but I think it's made from fox urine so your cats may not like it sny more than a skunk would.

If your lawn has a bunch of little holes in it, the skunk may be going after beetle grubs. Beneficial nematodes may help go after the grubs making the skunk look elsewhere for food. I'd be careful about the nematodes as they are worms, but there should be some that won't go after your cats or dog.

I don't know if any of this would actually work, but it may give you a place to start looking.

Hope this helps some.

Okay, anytime I see 'beneficial nematodes', then I assume you are a gardner of some sort Yeah for the gardners!

Heee!! JM! Had a skunk named Peppy!! LOL!!! For some reason that really cracks my bonkers!! Peppy le pew!! I love that cartoon skit!!!

Well if he isn't bothering ya, I reckon, for the time being, let him hang out with the cats, maybe he feels a bit lonely and wants some company

I agree with jellybelly. It might be better than dealing with the alternative...

Skunks!!!!! YUCK!!!!
Some friends of mine had a skunk get into their walk-in basement once, and they were scared-to-death that the skunk was going to spray while it was still inside!!! (insert holding-nose-because-of-horrible-smell smilie here.)

i think skunks are so cute, but i wouldnt want one hanging with the cats because skunks are real bad to carry rabies, even if your cat has its rabie shot it still might get into a fight with the kitty, i had a friend of mine that had one for a pet, and she called him ralph, dont know where she came up with that name, she would walk it on a leash around town and it loved cheese curls and went to a litter box, and actually played alot like a cat. it passed a couple years ago. it had a brown streak up its back, it wasnt from the wild.

It is not rabid, and skunks are really not dirty. The upswing is they eat yellow jackets, wasps, ants, flies, and beetles. I just don't want the cats to meet the skunk in the worst way, so far that has happened only once. We can get incredibly close to this skunk, and I know she is not someone's pet because in Oregon it is against the law to keep them as pets and she still has her scent glands. I just wonder if she is mourning the loss of her babies and that is why she is staying around, hoping they show up again..

i see what you mean about why she is hanging around, i dont know, mabie her young came in that direction and got lost from her, or maybe she is just smeeling the cat food, they have pretty good noses good luck to your kitties that they dont get sprayed, thats a nasty smell